Saturday, January 12, 2013

Vendor Post: Vagabond Jewelry

Well, here we are one week out from our civil ceremony! How exciting! Besides the holidays, I've been busy finishing grad school, getting a job, and recovering from a bad cold, but we have also been busy planning wedding stuff during that time, including:

-Hiring a photographer (look for a vendor post on her soon)
-Trying on wedding dresses for the October wedding
-Setting a date for the October wedding (October 6, 2013)
-Getting materials together for invitations and response cards
-Theorizing about important things like cake and food and tables
-Setting a location (a friend's house in Laytonsville, MD)
-Getting our wedding rings!

Speaking of getting our wedding rings, it's about time I did a post on the fantastically talented and creative designer/creator of our wedding rings, and told you a little bit about the backstory of our relationship with her.

I don't tend to like jewelry, which makes me a very difficult person to shop for traditionally romantic gifts for, and for years I've encouraged people in my life to not buy me jewelry because it always ends up being such a hassle and I never wear it. Enter Vagabond Jewelry. When Noah and I were at the beginning of our relationship, he presented me with a ribbon bracelet, on which was attached a copper plate with the words "Love, Dictionarydon" engraved on it. I don't think I've ever loved a piece of jewelry more. So when we went to choose our wedding rings, Vagabond was really the only vendor I considered.

Kest Schwartzman, the metalsmith behind Vagabond Jewelry, created her company with the purpose of making jewelry that was tough and strong and could keep up with an active lifestyle. She works mainly with copper, but also uses other metals in her creations. Her collections include all kinds of jewelry, as well as masks, neckpieces, and hairpieces. There is just so much to love. I even got the chance to meet her in person at her new workshop in Frederick, MD, and she is super cool and her workshop has lots of awesome things lying around. As someone who finds most regular jewelry too fragile (and who doesn't like cut gems because they're too put-together), her style is right up my alley. I mean, she made me a wedding ring out of titanium, so yeah. She's awesome.

Look for more posts in the next couple weeks, including a post on our photographer and a recap of the civil ceremony weekend once it's over (with pictures!). If you're interested in seeing the wedding rings we chose, I'll make sure we get some pictures of that as well.